Our final spotlight Community Day of 2025 is here, and it's a blast! How does TOUCANNON look with its new signature move? Let's dive RIGHT in and see.

TOUCANNON

Normal/Flying Type

GREAT LEAGUE:

Attack: 137 (136 High Stat Product)

Defense: 97 (98 High Stat Product)

HP: 123 (124 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-13, 1499 CP, Level 21)

ULTRA LEAGUE:

Attack: 177 (176 High Stat Product)

Defense: 125 (126 High Stat Product)

HP: 159 (160 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs: 2-15-14, 2499 CP, Level 39)

MASTER LEAGUE:

Only if you're a froot loop!

I feel like there's no more common type combination in the franchise than Normal/Flying. (I had to look it up, and hey, that is correct!) That means that it shouldn't be any great surprise when I review the weaknesses (Electric, Rock, Ice) or resistances (Grass, Bug, 2x Ground, 2x Ghost) of Normal Birds like Toucannon. It's actually a pretty good defensive typing overall, with clear vulnerbilities but some excellent resistances… though again, nothing new.

So let's instead spend a minute on the stats. Here, quite frankly, things are not great. While it's bulkier than Dodrio and Staraptor, Toucannon is notably flimsier than other viable Normal Flyers (including Pidgeot, Rufflet, and Fearow), and many other Flying types of other typings, even those known themselves to be glassy like Gyarados, Charizard, Dragonite, Aerodactyl, and even both versions of Zapdos (though regular Zapdos is very, very close, depending on IV spreads). Noooooot great. The good news is that Toucannon comes with very affordable charge moves, and was part of the big Peck buff of Season 24, giving it excellent energy generation to spam those moves as quickly as possible.

But now I'm getting a little aheaf of myself. Let's check out ALL those moves… right now!

Fast Moves

• Peck (Flying, 3.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown)

• Bullet Seed (Grass, 1.66 DPT, 4.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)

• Rock Smash (Fighting, 3.0 DPT, 2.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)

Put simply, Toucannon was not on anyone's radar with Bullet Seed (and certainly not with Rock Smash until its inevitable surprise buff in Season 30 or something). Like most everything else with Peck, it is now, albeit not to the same degree as others like Togekiss, Fearow, or Murkrow. (But FAR better than Toucannon ever was before the buff.) But of course, that deficiency is what the new charge move is here now to try and fix. Let's see if it's successful!

ᴱ – Community Day Exclusive Move

Charge Moves

• Rock Blast (Rock, 50 damage, 40 energy)

• Drill Peck (Flying, 70 damage, 40 energy)

• Beak Blastᴱ (Flying, 110 damage, 55 energy, Reduces Opponent Attack -1 Stage)

• Flash Cannon (Steel, 110 damage, 70 energy)

So while you may like the idea of Flash Cannon as a closer, it's jusr far too expensive to ever really work all that well… ins't it? Even though that was my initial assumption too, upon further review, one could argue that perhaps Flash Cannon has a bit more to offer than Rock Blast, which is just a very poor move overall, especially since it offers no speed advantage over Drill Peck. And I mean, even when Rock Blast is super effective and Drill Peck is not, the latter still deals more damage. (Such as versus Fearow, for just one example, where super effective Rock Blast deals 69 damage, and neutral Drill Pecks deals 72 damage… and again, for the exact same 40 energy. Or as perhaps an even clearer example, with shields down, Shadow Toucannon finishes off Fearow with 86 damage from Drill Peck, but actually falls short with only 82 damage from Rock Blast!)

So while I went into this analysis assuming Rock Blast was the coverage move to run, I now think perhaps it should have actually been Flash Cannon all along. At least it can overpower things that Drill Peck/Rock Blast alone cannot, like Lickilicky in 1shield, Malamar in 0shield, and Cradily in 2shield, whereas Rock Blast it literally only useful when it is TWO levels of effectiveness greather than Drill Peck, such as versus double-weak-to-Rock Talonflame; beating Talonflame with shields down it literally the only notable win you uniquely get with Rock Blast.

ANYway, we're not really here to talk about any of those. Hey, it wouldn't be a JRE article if I didn't spend 2000 characters on something that's a mere tangent. 🙃 We're here to talk about new (not just to Toucannon, but to the game in general) charge move Beak Blast, the MSG signature move of Toucannon. As a Flying move, it offers no coverage whatsoever… if you run it, you obviously want to keep Peck and superior-to-Rock Blast spammer Drill Peck, as not surprisingly, double nukes does NOT work very well. So while Peck/Drill Peck/Beak Break certainly seems like the way to go, it leaves Toucannon in the awkward spot of having ALL Flying moves, which makes Toucannon critically weak to Electric and Rock types (taking super effective damage while those types also resist Flying damage) and Flying-resistant Steel types as well. One reason other Peck users like Togekiss and Fearow work so well now is that they have charge moves that deal either super effective or at least big neutral damage to traditional Flying counters; Togekiss has Aura Sphere now to hit Rocks and Steels for super effective damage and at least big neutral damage to Electrics, while Fearow has Drill Run to hot all those of those types for super effective damage. Toucannon would be left with nothing that can hit ANY of those types for unresisted damage. That all being said, Beak Blast arrives as a REALLY good move, a clone of Megahorn, High Jump Kick, and fellow Flying move Acrobatics, but Beak Blast is better than ALL of them since it also comes with a guaranteed Attack debuff on the opponent. Megahorn and Acrobarics have no stat modifiers at all, and High Jump Kick actually comes with a massive drawback of hitting the user's Defense (by four stages, at that!). Can that kind of power and handy debuff overcome the downsides of all-Flying damage?

Yes. Yes, it appears it can.

GREAT LEAGUE

As a reminder, here is Toucannon's current high bar in Geat League, running Peck and Drill Peck with Flash Cannon for coverage/closing power. And now, the moment we've all been waiting for: Toucannon with Beak Blast is indeed better. And not with any tradeoffs, either… it beats everything Flash Cannon can while adding on Altaria, Galarian Moltres, and weak-to-Steel Wigglytuff. And the resuls are staggering with shields down, with Beak Blast more than douhling the number of wins that Flash Cannon can achieve, beating all the same Pokémon plus (in order) Blastoise, Galarian Corsola, Diggersby, Fearow, Feraligatr, Mandibuzz, ShadoWak, Moltres (Galarian), Sableye (regular and Shadow), Talonflame (regular and Shadow), Tinkaton, Togekiss, and Wigglytuff.

There IS a small reason for Flash Cannon to celebrate in 2v2s shielding, as it uniquely beats Cradily thanks to being super effective while Beak Blast is neutral, but Beak Blast is still better overall with its own exclusive wins against Clodsire and Florges.

And yes, that goes double for Shadow Toucannon: Beak Blast is again better than Flash Cannon across the board, with Beak Blast beating all the same things PLUS Diggersby, Cradily, Altaria, and Azumarill in 1shield, and adding Galarian Corsola, Corviknight, Feraligatr, Forretress, Furret, Gastrodon, Lickilicky, ShadoWak, Galarian Moltres, Sableye, Talonflame, and Wigglytuff to the win column with shields down.

As for the comparison between Shadow and not… the former is slightly better overall, but not strictly so. The loss of Defense with the Shadow version means that is loses to things like Lickilicky, Mandibuzz, and Shadow Talonflame that regular Toucannon can outlast, but the boost in Attack power gives Shadow Toucannon its own set of unique wins that includes stuff like Primeape, Furret, Malamar, Galarian Corsola, Cradily, and Azumarill. The two versions are much closer to sidegrades in other shielding scenarios, however.

It's pretty clear: Beak Blast/Drill Peck is the best charge move combination for Toucannon in Great League now, despite leaving it with no coverage. This goes for regular and Shadow variants, and in all shielding scenarios.

ULTRA LEAGUE

And yes, the same is true in Ultra League as well… Beak Blast is even more superior to Flash Cannon at this level, again matching all the same wins and adding a bunch of things on top, including Togekiss, Talonflame, Skeledirge, Malamar, Shadow Drapion, Nidoqueen, ShadowGatr, Zygarde, and even Flying-resistant Corviknight in 1v1 shielding, Galarian Weezing, Galarian Moltres, and Tentacruel in 2v2 shielding, and Cobalion, Cradily, Cresselia, Drapion, ShadowGatr, Greninja, Guzzlord, Lickilicky, Armored Mewtwo, Shadow Nidoqueen, Runerigus, Tentacruel, and Zygarde with shields down (though it's worth noting that Galarian Weezing uniquely falls to Flash Cannon in that scenario).

And yes, that goes for Shadow Toucannon as well, strictly better than Flash Cannon in all even shield matchups except 2shield, with Flash Cannon again punching out Cradily exclusively, but Beak Blast doing SO much more, who cares?

IN CONCLUSION

Yeah, the choice is quite clear, folks: Beak Blast is THE second move you want on Toucannon from here on out, giving it the unfortunate downside of zero coverage, but mostly overcoming that along the way to newfound success and potential stardom in PvP anyway. Will it really achieve stardom? I don't know, but the potential is there, with numbers in Great and Ultra Leagues that put it right up there with the best of the best of the best Peck users and even Flyers in general. Post-Community Day, Shadow Toucannon is ranked among the Top 10 Flyers in Great League, and is ranked fourth among Flyers in Ultra League, and inside the Top 30 overall! Those are good signs that point to at least the potential for success on thr right teams. You need to avoid hard Flying counters (Electrics, Rocks, Steels, even most Ice types) in the process, however. There's enough risk and limiation here for me to trust it fully on any old team, but on a team built to protect it from those hard counters? It could feast in the right hands. Could that include YOU, dear reader? Even if not, I do recommend everyone that is able try to land Toucannons with Beak Blast in Great and Ultra Leagues, and especially prioritize Shadow variants, particular in Ultra where Shadow Toucannon pulls away from non-Shadow more noticably and consistently across even shield matchups. Good luck!

Alright, done for this analysis! Now it's on to breaking down the GBL Season 25 move rebelance, so look for that in the coming days! (Send [Diet] Dr Pepper, folks! 😵) Until then, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting, folks! Have fun grinding those spawns and hanging out with your communities, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!